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TEXAS PINBALL FESTIVAL 2023
Pinball News
Hello and welcome to our extended coverage of this year’s Texas Pinball Festival, held as usual at the Frisco Convention Center which adjoins the Embassy Suites hotel.
The home for the Texas Pinball Festival since 2014
The history of the Texas Pinball Festival has seen it held at the Hilton in Grapevine, The Hilton Anatole in downtown Dallas and, since 2014, at the Frisco Convention Center. Although it could be argued that the Convention Center is not large enough for the ambitions of the show, it has proved to be a valuable and co-operative partner, with an outstanding range of accommodation options nearby once the host Embassy Suites sells out (which it regularly does within minutes of the show’s allocation of discounted rooms going on sale).
One of the show banners
This year’s Texas Pinball Festival hosts an extraordinary selection of new titles from various manufacturers, including Foo Fighters from Stern Pinball, The Godfather from Jersey Jack Pinball, Scooby-Doo: Where Are You! from Spooky Pinball, Final Resistance from Multimorphic, Galactic Tank Force from American Pinball and Pulp Fiction from Chicago Gaming and Play Mechanix, with more new games possibly making an appearance.
The Texas Pinball Festival floor plan
This year’s TPF is going to be like no other, so join us for our extensive coverage of the whole show which will be updated throughout the event’s three days of public access.
The ticket booth outside the main hall is where on-the-day and pre-purchased ticked can be collected
Thursday is set-up day and not open to the public. Naturally, Pinball News has all-areas access and we can show you the setting up and what is going to be available to play once the doors open at 5pm on Friday.
Inside the main show hall
One of the companies with a new title to promote is Jersey Jack Pinball who have brought multiple The Godfather machines to the show.
Some of the machines brought by Jersey Jack Pinball
You can play a Collector’s Edition model here too
We had a preview of the Collector’s Edition and the playfield artwork sparkle effect around many of the features is quite extraordinary. We’ll have more on that later.
We popped back a little later to see how the JJP stand was progressing and saw some of the many games set-up in preparation for Friday’s opening.
The Jersey Jack Pinball stand starts to take shape
Stern Pinball also have a new title to promote. They had many copies of their Foo Fighters game on their stand run in association with Fun! Billiards & Gameroom Superstore in Mesquite, Texas.
Lots of Foo Fighters games from Stern Pinball
Although Foo Fighters is their latest, it isn’t the only title from Stern Pinball at the show, as they also have multiple Dr. No James Bond games on the floor.
Dr. No couldn’t say ‘No’ to the TPF
Another company with a recent announcement was Spooky Pinball who brought six of their new Scooby-Doo: Where Are You! machines together with a Mystery Machine and a claw game to dispense prizes to show visitors.
The six Scooby-Doo games from Spooky Pinball
The Mystery Machine VW Camper
The Spooky Pinball grabber
Although it is hard to gauge before the show opens, one of the most eagerly-anticipated new titles on the floor comes from Play Mechanix and Chicago Gaming.
Pulp Fiction from Play Mechanix and Chicago Gaming
Four Pulp Fiction games have been brought to the show for the public to play.
Two of the four Pulp Fiction games at the show
Pinball Brothers have a stand with three of their Queen pinballs and two Aliens. Two more Queen machines are available to play on their distributor Coin Taker’s stand.
The Pinball Brothers’ stand during set-up
At the time of our visit, neither American Pinball nor Multimorphic had yet arrived with their newest titles, however Haggis Pinball were there with their Fathom Revisited game and their first title, Celts.
Haggis Pinball’s stand with Celts and Fathom Revisited
In a late update, we popped back into the hall after everyone else had left and confirmed American Pinball’s new Galactic Tank Force game had indeed arrived. On the way back we spotted game designer Dennis Nordman checking into the show hotel ahead of the American Pinball seminar about his game at 5pm on Friday.
While the newest releases grab all the attention, the Texas Pinball Festival is all about the full range of pinballs through the years.
It’s not all new games though as there are plenty of classics too
It’s not all about flipper games either, as these pre-flipper mechanical marvels in the History of Pinball exhibit demonstrate
Setting up some of the many privately-owned pinballs at the show
Many of the privately-owned games at the show
The TPF organisers used their tried-and-tested system for unloading trucks at the back door of the hall in order to get the games out, checked in, and the trucks away as efficiently as possible.
Trucks are unload at the hall’s back doors
Games go into a staging area before moving into the main hall
It’s not all games, either. There are plenty of vendor stands selling mods, artworks, spares, and much more. We’ll cover those a little later in this report once the show opens.
3D artwork is a definite theme of this year’s Texas Pinball Festival
We look forward to seeing exactly what this vendor’s stand is selling
Not all the action takes place in the main hall, as there are multiple tournaments held in some of the adjacent conference rooms.
The tournaments area
Inside the tournaments room
The main TPF tournaments don’t begin until Friday but there was plenty of play on the machines on Thursday
The main TPF tournaments will also be streamed live
That concludes our look at Thursday’s set-up of the Texas Pinball Festival 2023. Pinball News will be back on Friday as the set-up continues ahead of the 5pm public opening of the show, along with the first of the many seminars.
So, check back here for all the very latest updates as we continue our exclusive in-depth reporting from this year’s Texas Pinball Festival.
Continue reading...
Pinball News
Hello and welcome to our extended coverage of this year’s Texas Pinball Festival, held as usual at the Frisco Convention Center which adjoins the Embassy Suites hotel.
The home for the Texas Pinball Festival since 2014
The history of the Texas Pinball Festival has seen it held at the Hilton in Grapevine, The Hilton Anatole in downtown Dallas and, since 2014, at the Frisco Convention Center. Although it could be argued that the Convention Center is not large enough for the ambitions of the show, it has proved to be a valuable and co-operative partner, with an outstanding range of accommodation options nearby once the host Embassy Suites sells out (which it regularly does within minutes of the show’s allocation of discounted rooms going on sale).
One of the show banners
This year’s Texas Pinball Festival hosts an extraordinary selection of new titles from various manufacturers, including Foo Fighters from Stern Pinball, The Godfather from Jersey Jack Pinball, Scooby-Doo: Where Are You! from Spooky Pinball, Final Resistance from Multimorphic, Galactic Tank Force from American Pinball and Pulp Fiction from Chicago Gaming and Play Mechanix, with more new games possibly making an appearance.
The Texas Pinball Festival floor plan
This year’s TPF is going to be like no other, so join us for our extensive coverage of the whole show which will be updated throughout the event’s three days of public access.
The ticket booth outside the main hall is where on-the-day and pre-purchased ticked can be collected
Thursday is set-up day and not open to the public. Naturally, Pinball News has all-areas access and we can show you the setting up and what is going to be available to play once the doors open at 5pm on Friday.
Inside the main show hall
One of the companies with a new title to promote is Jersey Jack Pinball who have brought multiple The Godfather machines to the show.
Some of the machines brought by Jersey Jack Pinball
You can play a Collector’s Edition model here too
We had a preview of the Collector’s Edition and the playfield artwork sparkle effect around many of the features is quite extraordinary. We’ll have more on that later.
We popped back a little later to see how the JJP stand was progressing and saw some of the many games set-up in preparation for Friday’s opening.
The Jersey Jack Pinball stand starts to take shape
Stern Pinball also have a new title to promote. They had many copies of their Foo Fighters game on their stand run in association with Fun! Billiards & Gameroom Superstore in Mesquite, Texas.
Lots of Foo Fighters games from Stern Pinball
Although Foo Fighters is their latest, it isn’t the only title from Stern Pinball at the show, as they also have multiple Dr. No James Bond games on the floor.
Dr. No couldn’t say ‘No’ to the TPF
Another company with a recent announcement was Spooky Pinball who brought six of their new Scooby-Doo: Where Are You! machines together with a Mystery Machine and a claw game to dispense prizes to show visitors.
The six Scooby-Doo games from Spooky Pinball
The Mystery Machine VW Camper
The Spooky Pinball grabber
Although it is hard to gauge before the show opens, one of the most eagerly-anticipated new titles on the floor comes from Play Mechanix and Chicago Gaming.
Pulp Fiction from Play Mechanix and Chicago Gaming
Four Pulp Fiction games have been brought to the show for the public to play.
Two of the four Pulp Fiction games at the show
Pinball Brothers have a stand with three of their Queen pinballs and two Aliens. Two more Queen machines are available to play on their distributor Coin Taker’s stand.
The Pinball Brothers’ stand during set-up
At the time of our visit, neither American Pinball nor Multimorphic had yet arrived with their newest titles, however Haggis Pinball were there with their Fathom Revisited game and their first title, Celts.
Haggis Pinball’s stand with Celts and Fathom Revisited
In a late update, we popped back into the hall after everyone else had left and confirmed American Pinball’s new Galactic Tank Force game had indeed arrived. On the way back we spotted game designer Dennis Nordman checking into the show hotel ahead of the American Pinball seminar about his game at 5pm on Friday.
While the newest releases grab all the attention, the Texas Pinball Festival is all about the full range of pinballs through the years.
It’s not all new games though as there are plenty of classics too
It’s not all about flipper games either, as these pre-flipper mechanical marvels in the History of Pinball exhibit demonstrate
Setting up some of the many privately-owned pinballs at the show
Many of the privately-owned games at the show
The TPF organisers used their tried-and-tested system for unloading trucks at the back door of the hall in order to get the games out, checked in, and the trucks away as efficiently as possible.
Trucks are unload at the hall’s back doors
Games go into a staging area before moving into the main hall
It’s not all games, either. There are plenty of vendor stands selling mods, artworks, spares, and much more. We’ll cover those a little later in this report once the show opens.
3D artwork is a definite theme of this year’s Texas Pinball Festival
We look forward to seeing exactly what this vendor’s stand is selling
Not all the action takes place in the main hall, as there are multiple tournaments held in some of the adjacent conference rooms.
The tournaments area
Inside the tournaments room
The main TPF tournaments don’t begin until Friday but there was plenty of play on the machines on Thursday
The main TPF tournaments will also be streamed live
That concludes our look at Thursday’s set-up of the Texas Pinball Festival 2023. Pinball News will be back on Friday as the set-up continues ahead of the 5pm public opening of the show, along with the first of the many seminars.
So, check back here for all the very latest updates as we continue our exclusive in-depth reporting from this year’s Texas Pinball Festival.
Continue reading...
